There was a plethora of things in A Separate Peace that symbolize many of Knowles ideas. He uses these symbols to help portray his themes and make the novel more meaningful. The tree portrays the idea that if we accept people's differences, we will have peace. The war demonstrates the theme that war will have a prominent effect on everyone. The Devon River and the Naguamsett river show that there is a good side and an evil side in everyone. The tree, the war, and the two rivers symbolize John Knowles themes in A Separate Peace.
             The Tree portrays the idea that if we accept people's differences, we will have peace. If Gene would not have been jealous of Finny being better than him, and accepted this difference than Finny would have never fallen out of the tree and broken his leg. Gene shook the tree which knocked Finny out, because he could not accept Finny's difference in being better than Gene. John Knowles uses the tree as a catalyst for Genes intolerance of Finny's differences. The tree helped Gene feel superior because Finny clumsily fell off and broke his leg whereas Gene gracefully dove off into the water. If the tree was not there than Gene would have not had the chance to make himself the superior of the two, and there would have been peace.
             The war demonstrates the theme that war will have a prominent effect on everyone. When the war happened everybody at Devon was effected by it. It made some people go crazy, some people thought about blowing away their education and joining the military, and some people didn't even believe it all. Leper Lepellier was the first and only person to enlist and the war made him go insane. Brinker thought about enlisting, but when he was ridiculed by the other students he decided not to. Finny did not believe it really existed and said it was made up by fat men. However, his opinion was changed when he saw the Leper h
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